[gmw]

I had a LOT of trouble reading this book.

The first 80..100 pages were hard work. As a writer I found some interest in them, some aspects were clever, and as a reader I thought the result was not totally lacking in good effect. (But is this damned by faint praise?) By about page 100 we know the full story in about as much relevant detail as we ever learn in the subsequent 350 pages, and it has been achieved in an unusual manner. But I found much of the prose awkward and the construction different enough that careful attention was required - hence "hard work".

Then we should be settling into the main recital from Grace. I thought it would smooth out and perhaps become easier/faster, but instead I found the prose to be like a sleeping pill. It wasn't that I found it without interest, although there seemed far more text than warranted, and we don't actually learn anything factually new, but there was something in the rhythm or style that was like a lullaby to me. Within a few pages of picking it up my eyelids would start drooping and I'd have to sit up straight and slap myself in the face a few times before I could keep going for another few pages.

By the end I had a bruised face and had found no apparent advantage to forcing myself to read the last 350 pages.

All up, I'm not sure I'm qualified to give an assessment because I'm not sure how much I was awake to take in. I did manage to stay reasonably alert for the last 50 pages or so (of almost pure fiction?) and found it much less than convincing. Given what had gone before I'm not convinced a happy ending fitted very well.

I do have lots of text highlighted in my copy that I still have to work back through, things I thought at the time seem relevant to the guilt or innocence of Grace. But such conjecture is probably pointless. We are now at how many removes from the real events? Based on Atwood's book I think I could make a case for several different versions. I wonder if that was her intention.

This is not a book that I am ever going to pick up again. I only finished it because it was for book club - and I'm thinking now a good summary version could have saved me some time and effort (although I may have gotten less much needed sleep).